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Infant, toddler deaths stand out in year of crime coverage

Covering public safety for nearly 9 months tends to harden one’s heart, but as I left a West Side home where a 5-month-old baby was accidentally smothered on Christmas Day, I burst into tears.

Rene Montoya’s parents called 911 around 10 a.m. Dec. 25, when they found the infant wasn’t breathing. He was pronounced dead inside the home.

While Rene’s death was preliminarily ruled accidental, there were five children under the age of 2 whose deaths in 2009 are categorized as homicides. Since my first day on the beat, on March 31, I personally covered the deaths of nine children who were 2 years old and younger, many of which engraved startling images and sounds in my mind.

According to a San Antonio Police Department report, the boy’s parents had gone to bed late and slept with the infant only to find him at the foot of the bed the next morning.

I arrived at the home, which was surrounded by patrol cars, and planted myself across the street not knowing just how uncomfortable I would soon be. Police guarded the front door of the home, but I could hear every word Rene’s mother shrieked at family members inside. For the first time in my life, I listened as she wailed through various stages of grief – I heard shock, hostile reactions and guilt, and have never wanted more to be somewhere else.

After speaking with a sergeant, I drove away and reflected on my first year as a crime beat reporter. On my first day, I heard a call for an animal bite – a 7-month-old boy had been attacked by two pit bulls. As I walked around the corner to the West Side home, I heard gunshots as police shot the dogs, which belonged to Izaiah Gregory Cox’s grandmother.

I stood in shock at the curb in front of the home until family members, fueled by adrenaline and police armed with “Crime Scene” tape, pushed me away. A bedroom window was open, and I learned later that first responders had used it to get inside the home to treat the infant. Meanwhile, neighbors who were alerted by the gunshots began to gather and shared with me their stories of frightening encounters with the dogs. The boy’s grandmother, 59-year-old Irma Barrera, was indicted months later on one count of injury to a child.

In July, as the heat of the summer enveloped San Antonio, emotions flared in two North Side families. On July 5, a triple-homicide whose victims included 2-year-old Anika Gass took place in a North Side apartment complex. As officers questioned the toddler’s father at police headquarters, 30-year-old Chris Allgood, a man who Anika called “Uncle Billy,” walked up to media that had gathered at the complex, holding a pair of the little girl’s shoes. He was distraught about the other victims – Anika’s mother, 26-year-old Courtney Gass and the couple’s friend, Kevin Bones – but Anika’s death was the cause for his tears.

He used to take her to North Star Mall, where they would eat ice cream and shop for shoes, a little girl’s dream, he said.

One Sunday morning weeks later, I arrived at Otty Sanchez’s home before the sun rose. The scene was eerily silent – crime scene investigators, homicide detectives and other officers walked to and from the home, staring at the ground. Aside from an overnight photographer for TV stations who was packing up, no other media was at the scene. When I saw someone walk toward a white van from the home holding two brown paper bags, I asked an officer guarding the scene what was in the bags.

“That’s the body,” he said.

I prodded him, asked if the suspect was in custody and what the house looked like.

“Just wait ’till it comes out in the news,” he said.

“I am the news,” I replied, a little stunned.

The details of Scott Wesley Buchholz Sanchez’s death made headlines for weeks to come. His mother, 33-year-old Otty Sanchez, is charged with capital murder and reportedly stabbed, decapitated, skinned, gutted and ate her newborn. Officials said she suffered from post-partum psychosis; she claimed “the Devil” made her kill her baby.

As I left these scenes and so many others, my stomach turned into a blender. Crime reporting has desensitized me to many devastating incidents, and while police often point to many reasons for adults to be killed — domestic disputes, gang fights, etc — I can’t understand why children are targeted. Children, and especially those under the age of 2, are an entirely different story.

Eva Ruth Moravec

One Response

I came across your blog today. I remember reading about the triple homicide of Courtney, Anika, and Kevin. I understand the trial was supposed to start late last year, but it seems to have been delayed. Would you happen to know anything about it?